Why Patience Has Its Perks

I’m sure St. George is a lovely place, but Disneyland? Disneyland is coined as THE happiest place on earth! Especially for kids.

I watched this video and thought about the Israelites. God rescued them out of slavery in Exodus. Slavery. Then, he took them to the desert, promising them they would go to the promised land (which would be infinitely better to the people of God than Disneyland, by the way). Much like the kids in the video, though, Israel immediately began to complain. There are 15 instances in Exodus and Numbers alone where the Israelites “grumbled.” They were constantly whining about something. And just like these kids, they couldn’t stop thinking about their current struggles of being on the uncomfortable journey a little longer to focus on the incredible gift their Father had in store.

I’m often like these kids, too. I know God has promised me good (Romans 8:28-29), and His good is better than anything I can imagine (including St. George and Disneyland). However, sometimes getting to the good means being on the journey a little longer than I’d prefer. Sometimes good doesn’t seem good to me. Like these kids and the Israelites, I begin to whine and grumble. I tell God I’d rather have less-than-good than wait on awesome.

We can easily see the foolishness of these kids. We can see the foolishness of the Israelites. We can see it because we know the end of their stories. We know Disneyland is amazing and the promised land is even more wonderful. We must trust that our futures will be just as great. God has promised good for us. It may be a while, but we can trust that we will get there.

Hang in there! You’ll be glad you did.

Elizabeth Hyndman is an editor at LifeWay. She’s a rare Nashville native who uses lots of parentheses. Keep up with Elizabeth regularly at her blog: edhyndman.com.